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applesontheground · 2 years

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your own prometheus 💉

CHAPTER THREE go on, moron | AO3

SFW | Word Count: 3,448 | Herbert West x GN Reader x Daniel Cain

contains: canon typical/mentions of body tampering

⬅ continued from i’m walking a line ➡ continued in you don’t know my mind, you don’t know my kind

How you were even standing today was a mystery to you, and once again Dan had been right about staying up late. Still, at least you were moving.

Exhaustion blanketed over every action, making your eyes droop when they weren’t meeting others and yawns not far behind through the many offices you had to stop into. Even the gust of air that hit you through the doors leading into Miskatonic didn’t do much to wake you up, and the noise from inside was enough to make you grumpy rather than alert.

Striding up to the usual cubby near the clock in the emergency room’s lobby, you stuck your hand inside, feeling nothing but cold metal and dust settle onto your skin. No documents from that wing today? Recognizing the noise around you but unable to grasp the complexity of each conversation, you mused to yourself that it sure didn’t seem slow for a day to not have outgoing docs.

“Finding your way this time, [papergirl/paperboy/paper-pusher]?” The voice more than familiar, you turned with an almost embarrassingly wide grin. Dan had found his way to stand next to you while your attention was diverted, watching the bustle with the same keen eye and a nod to the occasional familiar face in the crowd, but the moment they finally fixed to yours everything seemed to fall to the background – or at least, you wondered if that was a mutual feeling as your back settled onto the wall.

“Sure.” You scoffed, “But, thank you for checking, Dr. Cain. You know me, though. Wouldn’t put it past myself to manage getting lost in the depths of this godforsaken place – even still.” He smiled at that and sighed, “Like nothing’s changed, sometimes.”

You shrugged at that, “Nope, still friends with you, still a courier…but-” You held up your I.D. badge, one used to get into the private offices in the building, “I have clearance to any room in this damn hospital.” Dan glanced at your card, lamination under fluorescents making it impossible to see the stiff photo you had taken a few years back for it, and he echoed, “Wait, any room?”

You pushed the I.D. back in your pocket and sighed, “That’s what they said, so long as I stop the habit of wandering. Didn’t have time to find the specific wings and offices I needed to be given the clear to, so they just…gave it all the clear.” You tried not to giggle at the incredulous look forming on his face and insisted, “Said they wouldn’t worry so long as I just show up where I’m expected.” You shrugged harder, this time bumping his arm while you did it as you added under your breath, “Which I do.”

“Look at you,” Dan crossed his arms, grinning as he teased, “Making your way up the ladder.” You rolled your eyes, but the following laugh got cut short as he pointed out, “Herbert and I don’t even have clearance to every spot in the hospital.” You cocked your head at him and asked, “Huh? Shouldn’t you? I mean, you’re doctors.”

He looked away rather quickly, shaking his head at the floor and murmuring a quiet string of words sounding somewhere between don’t know and not sure. Following the broken eye contact, you looked off into the rest of the busy lobby. Almost immediately, you met eyes with a man standing almost straight across from you, in an open walkway down a corridor.

He had something bulky on his hip, attached to his belt that he held with a sure grip. You let your eyes dance from the rest of the room to him a couple times, idling to see more features while he unapologetically met your glances every time. His stone still eyes were taking it all in, the sight of you standing with Dan almost appearing as though it made him keen to something in his head. If you didn’t know better, you would’ve gotten déjà vu from yesterday, finding the same scrutiny akin to what those nurses had been giving you.

When you swallowed hard, growing a little antsy and shifting the papers that you had walked in with in your hands, he then pulled off the wall that he had been leaning against with one round shoulder. You watched him turn the corner, melding into the clusters of people striding along with him in the same direction, but before you could think to bring it up Dan cleared his throat. “Hey, [Y/N], what are you up to tonight?”

You squinted in thought, finally replying in an attempt to ease the weird feeling, “Nothing. Why, need me to get out of the house?” You cracked a snarky grin when you met his eyes again, “Are you and that Denise lady gonna have another date night?”

Dan stood straighter. “No, actually. She…she didn’t want to have another one.” You rose your eyebrows at him, letting the silence sit between you with a thoughtful look at the floor. “…Herbert?”

“No.” He brushed you off, “He left it alone for once. She just…felt like there wasn’t room for her, but I don’t think it was because of Herbert…or even you.” You furrowed your brow at that, and he went on, “I don’t know, she and I just didn’t click much outside of the few puppy dates.”

“Oh.” You frowned now, “I’m sorry, Dan.”

“No, it’s no big deal. I’ve always had issues since my last steady girlfriend, Meg.”

There was little you knew about Dan’s ex-girlfriend, but her name was enough for you. You nodded carefully, and sighed, “Right.”

“[Y/N], I was actually wondering,” He held his breath, and although you didn’t meet his eyes, your eyebrows rose again, a cue to show you were listening. You spotted one of his hands fidgeting in his white coat pockets from your peripheral, and heard his voice sliding to something far meeker, “If you weren’t doing anything, m-maybe you’d-“

“Courier? This is for you.”

A specialist made his shoes squeak on the linoleum as he walked up to you, grabbing your attention with a barren voice as a paper was already being tucked on top of the pack you were holding. “Oh, thank you. What is this, a memo?” You perked up, looking down at it with a crane of your neck and Dan also giving a glance while he still stood close.

“Yeah, just…get it to the other hospital in town as soon as you can. Okay?” The other man patted your shoulder, making you blink at him in a slight confusion as he left the same way he had approached, also just as quickly. Eyes shooting back down, you couldn’t help but read it.

“…Missing body parts, huh?” Dan murmured in your ear, and you nearly dropped the stack of pages in your hands. Sweat immediately began pulling from your palms, the pads of your fingers threatening to stain the pristine note as you swallowed hard. Body found with an arm missing. Part of you wanted to look back up at him, ask for a confirmation that everything was okay – but he didn’t know why you needed that. Only you and Herbert could understand why – and you had told him you weren’t going to talk.

“Wow,” You hid the tremble in your breath with an attempt to act unimpressed overcoming your voice, tense to hide the way you felt like you were pooling into soup under the skin and your bones couldn’t hold you up anymore, “Weird stuff, huh? Missing bodies…and all that.” Laughing stiffly, you avoided Dan’s stare as you hummed, “I gotta get going, Dan. I’ll see you at home tonight, okay?”

“Oh, sure. See you.” He called as you already took off, sleepiness gone as you started mowing your bottom lip and found yourself unable to look anywhere but down at your papers.

It was when you got back to the records office, stashing yourself away in a windowless room and between two long bookcases of nothing but filed paperwork, that you decided you had to get to the end of this rope. Something had to start making sense lest you lost more sleep or cracked like an egg. Herbert wasn’t your friend, and Dan seemed to think you were too stupid to figure it out. At least, that was how it felt.

Eventually, you’d prove them wrong. It wasn’t a courier’s business, but you figured after five years you’d at least know where to look should you become curious enough. The older women who ran the office didn’t expect it from you, so when there was a moment neither of them had noticed your presence as you stopped in, you slipped to the shadows of the record closets. You didn’t know where to look first. You started in the shelves labeled ‘M’, thinking Miskatonic would be a good keyword to prod. Your hands were delicate as they ran laps around smooth edges of the folders, pawing through the alphabetic order of the rows and rows, afraid to find what you could only assume was a truth. Were you even ready for that? Are you going in over your head? You wished you could shake someone right now, curious for answers that just weren’t filled by an arm in the basement and a vague memo.

Make it make sense – even if one connected to the other.

A man clearing his throat made you snap your head up, a silent gasp leaving your mouth and guilt burning the edges of your disposition as your heart began to pound against your chest. The familiar set of green eyes widened at the gesture, and he cracked a smile. “Whoa, [miss/sir/there]. Didn’t mean to startle you, just…” He walked in slowly, imploring you to face him fully and fight the desperate look on your face to something neutral, nodding in greeting as he eased, “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

His hand was already sliding into yours, your entire arm shivering in the firm shake and your eyes fixed onto his face as you realized you did recognize him. “You can call me Mr. Dyer.” He explained, “I’m an investigator for the local station, started out as security for Miskatonic actually. Like to go back every once and awhile for old time’s sake, as you saw. You must be one of the record couriers here.”

“Y-yes.” You cleared your throat, “[Y/N] [L/N] – if you can remember that.” Laughing dryly, you murmured, “I kind of fall under the radar, so I don’t blame you for not knowing who I am.”

“[Y/N], I like the sound of that.” Forced. You tried not to cringe. “How long have you worked here?”

You set the file in your hand back down beside you, and replied with a nod, “About five years now. I started as a basic courier, doing the restraining orders, T.P.O’s and all. Then moved up to the legal document transport. Mainly work within the hospitals, law firms…”

“And with Dr. Cain?” Dyer finished as you trailed off, making your relaxed countenance pull tight again, “Daniel Cain, is that right?”

You hummed at him in affirmation, “Mm hm.” You then corrected, “I wouldn’t say I work with him, but I do room with him. Sometimes, we just need to discuss things if we see each other.”

“Roommates?” Dyer echoed. You only nodded, and felt the word start to lose its meaning as you mirrored, “Roommates.” He hummed pensively, “I had heard he had one other roommate already, Dr. Herbert West.” He shook his head slightly, “Didn’t know he welcomed a third in.”

You smirked, nose wrinkling slightly as you joked, “No one really knows, to be fair.”

He shrugged plainly, and sighed in an almost smug voice, “Well, now I know.” You were no longer looking at him, opening the file but only finding a warrant and some miscellaneous pages from a case from thirty years ago.

“You looking for something in here?” He questioned, and you mumbled just as quick as he had changed the subject, “Not really. Just filing something away for the ladies.” Grinning at him, he nodded solemnly and murmured, “Sure, sure…but I mean,” He pointed at the file in your hand, “You’re only going to find anything about Miskatonic either in the private records room down the hall, or back at the hospital.” Your hands started to shake against the papers, jaw loosening as you stared harder at the fruitless records. “They have copies of these records, some police reports…and if you find the hospital’s old-as-dirt copies, some of them are even unredacted.”

Your eyes widened, trying to look lost but unable to bend in a squint when he smiled at you, a gold tooth cap revealing itself on the left side of his top row. “Let me know what you find, [Y/N].” You watched him leave with cold sweat starting to press against your forehead, closing the manila folder shut as that painful lump sat in your throat.

Evenings were sometimes the only bearable parts of the Summer, and even though it had to be in the graveyard that sat outside of the house, you mused you’d rather be there right now than with your roommates. Not after today, the memo being handed to another hospital thanks to you and gone as soon as it had come into your terrified eye. It was where it should be, sure, but the words still wrapped around your head, squeezing until your vision swam and you thought you just may cry about it.

You leaned against a headstone with your hip, minding it the best you could as you used it to hold your weight for the moment while you stared into the tree line nearby, lost in these worries. Beautiful white wildflowers were growing in by the trees closest to you, round and soft with a milky white color that almost made you feel less sick.

Dyer wanted answers, just like you did. Although, you knew involving the police was not the way to go – whether what Herbert and Dan were doing was ethical like they had said. Neither of them would like to hear you’re speaking with an investigator, just as much as said investigator didn’t like to hear you were rooming with them. Two ends of a very strange, very secretive spectrum and the knot in the middle was you. You were someone who seemed to speak to the entire world and still knew nothing. Just a fly on this fucking wall.

…Even if that’s true, you had to go back home eventually, right? Noticing the first stars appear in the sky, hanging overhead in a comforting twinkle while another lukewarm breeze blew through your hair, you sucked in a breath and finally took yourself off the stone. With aching feet but a strong nerve feeling like it was the only thing keeping you upright, you made your way back across the street.

Despite coming in quietly, you heard something drop in the kitchen and Dan immediately stand in the doorway, meeting eyes with you. He had been reading something, his wire-framed glasses being pulled from his face as he gasped, “[Y/N], where’ve you been?” He seemed to be looking at you all over, and for once you only met that attention with a testy stare straight into his eyes, “You told me you’d be home tonight.”

“I just went for a walk.” You stated plainly, “It’s not that late, I-”

“Where were you?” The voice from the other end of the room made your eyes shoot in its direction and your relaxed frown grow with a purpose. A truer expression was unable to hide from the edge of Herbert’s voice as he came from the hallway. It was then, standing between the two of them, that you concurred they almost looked worried about you.

You knew lying was only going to make this worse, so you answered while your shoulders sagged, “Out at the graveyard. I’ve had a long day, and I needed to clear my head.” Dan looked out the window, and asked with a distant pang to his voice, “You can clear your head when you’re out there…?”

“Easily.” You insisted, unable to break eye contact with the other man as he walked to stand eye to eye with you. His intensity could’ve made you flinch, but that forced trust between the two of you kept you bold, like you two could hold knives to each other’s throats if you wanted. “See anything peculiar out there?” Herbert asked, and you slowly, wordlessly shook your head, hand anxiously curling at your side but your posture absolutely still.

“[Y/N] got handed a memo from work to send to other hospitals in the area.” Dan piped up again, finally taking Herbert’s eyes from yours, “About missing body parts. Strange, huh?”

“Quite.” He sniffed. You stared past him now, feeling the question tightening around your throat. Are those missing body parts in our basement right now? The presence of Dan standing right behind you pulled you back to reality once again, and you looked over your shoulder to smile slightly as he eased, “Yeah, like that place needs someone causing any more trouble. It’s been having issues since we were students.”

There was no laughter, his hands on both your shoulders in a playful wring that made you furrow your brow, another attempt to hide the awareness you knew clouded your eyes. Lucky for you, only one of them could see your expression right now, and he was the one that didn’t need to be enlightened that you knew something.

“Hey, you’re right. It’s still early, [Y/N].” Dan leaned over your shoulder, making you look at him again, “I picked up that wine I know you like, the one with the red bird on the label.”

“…Since when did you know I liked that one?” You cocked your head, perking up despite the day having wrung you dry. Dan shrugged, and nudged, “Go get it, I’ll-“

“Before you two do that,” Herbert wasn’t looking at you as he pulled you and his attention back over, “I need to talk to you about something, Daniel.”

“Sure, we c-“

“Downstairs.”

A bitter laugh caught in your mouth, but you quickly shoved it down with a sharp nod of your head, once again shooting a nasty glance in his direction that Dan didn’t catch. Still, when Dan gave you a pained glance you shrugged with an easy voice, “Go ahead.” Wanting nothing more but to ignore any more trouble that could come and the exhaustion once again sitting as a stomachache, you tapped the taller man on the chest, “I’ll go pour us the wine, alright? Take your time, come up when you’re done.” You dared glance at Herbert one more time, “And you can join us if you’d like, Herbert.”

He gave you no eye contact, still glued to Dan with a face that you could only read as disinterest as he lied, “I’ll consider it.”

With that, you broke away from them to the kitchen, finally throwing your coat on the counter and over your sketchbook that had somehow found its way…here. Before you could get mad about it, Dan had followed you in, a spindly shadow that met your shoulder before you even actually saw him but smiling all the same to know he was there.

“Hey.” He leaned in, the feeling of breath on your ear making those same bumps shoot over your arms and once again be thankful for long sleeves, “Thanks for trying to include him. It’s nice of you.” You were inches away from his face, those strings of a familiar pang that made your heart race for a different reason than it had been subjected to in the past twenty four hours pulling you closer, begging for the connection.

Instead, you scoffed, “Of course.”

He then pulled away, and you only smirked after him as he left the room, turning back to the open fridge with disappointment socking a long exhale from your mouth. A glass bottle that you couldn’t recall being there that morning caught your eye, and any ease you felt began to hole back up from where it had come, gone as soon as Dan and Herbert had turned their backs to you.

A daring hand skimmed over its cold surface, soon taking hold of its cylinder base. You held it up to see better, knotting your brow as you could now realize something that made it almost slip out of your hand and shatter to the floor.

Even without the light from the fridge, it glowed in an unnatural bright green.

#herbert west x reader x daniel cain #poly!danbert x reader #herbert west x reader #herbert west x y/n #daniel cain x reader #daniel cain x y/n #✏️#💉#PER MY LAST POST #if you want my other content you gotta pay the toll (look at my re-ani fic)#apologies for this buildup and exposition i just. have general ideas to go with the poly love #but after 8k we finally get a scene with the triad altogether #and they're kinda being cunts to each other but don't worry that's not gonna last #your own prometheus

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